Less than 12 months after signing for Chelsea Andrey Santos could return from what would already be his second loan away from the club. The Brazilian teenager was immediately sent back to South America after arriving as a prodigy from Vasco de Gama in January, much like Malo Gusto and Lyon, but things haven't worked out since.

Santos did feature for the club prominently in pre-season and looked to have forced his way into the squad for the upcoming campaign, especially before Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia signed in mid-August to shake things up. After the Under-20 World Cup over the summer he was one of the hottest properties on the market and now he is somewhat the forgotten man.

With just seven minutes of league action coming off the bench in a 3-0 loss away to Liverpool last month and not even being named in the matchday squad for the defeat to West Ham last time out Santos has failed to make much of an impact at Nottingham Forest. Partially down to their need for immediate quality rather than developing others and also the huge stockpiles of available midfielders, Santos' loan has been nothing short of underwhelming so far.

"He’s been good. He’s obviously a really good young player," Reds manager Steve Cooper said on October 5. "I had a really good chat with Chelsea [about him] this week. I didn’t realise some stuff had been written about him.

"There’s a lot of new players here and we’re really trying to get the balance right in integrating all the players at the right time, while trying to perform as best we can in every single game to get the results we want. That’s a real process."

One month on though and his only start remains in the Carabao Cup defeat to Burnley, a game in late August. With the 19-year-old looking to take his first steps into senior European football it is now integral that the Blues find a way for him to play and it increasingly looks like that will be away from the City Ground.

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"With young players, sometimes it can take longer than others to settle in. I’m not saying he’s not, it’s just circumstantial at the moment in some of the games," Cooper explained. "Brentford could have been a really good game for him to come off the bench but we went down to 10 men and he wasn’t feeling too well on the sidelines.

"That went against him, because he was definitely in our thinking for a change. It didn’t work out that way, because of how he was feeling and the red card – so there’s been a little bit of bad luck as well.

"But we’re really enjoying working with him and seeing him in training. We will continue with that process." That process may well be over before it has really begun. Reports are increasingly suggestive that the player will be recalled in January with Chelsea ready to exercise their right to bring him back to Stamford Bridge.

For a youngster that has just moved to the country and already jumping from location to location it is far from ideal but leaving him to not play on the bench is no better at this stage. Forest already have Ryan Yates, Orel Mangala, Cheikhou Kouyate and Nicolas Dominquez as well as Danilo and Ibrahim Sangare to fight for roles in the centre of the park and each of them are more experienced and taking priority over Santos.

At Stamford Bridge and the midfield is currently settled. There is no indication yet that the Brazil Under-20s captain is ready to make the step-up to first team level and the options under Pochettino reflect that. In the 12 games played so far Conor Gallagher has started all 12, captaining the side in most whilst Enzo Fernandez missed just one game coming back from international duty with a knock. Moises Caicedo was absent for the first game of the season before arriving but has still started nine times.

This trio has anchored the side expertly in recent weeks, helping cement the team together in impressive performances against Arsenal, Tottenham and Manchester City. Lesley Ugochukwu, who joined for over £20million in the summer, is also getting more opportunities than many imagined and has featured eight times in the league as well as in each League Cup tie.

Alex Matos is 19 and already part of the first team group even if his appearances have been limited. He remains one of the better development team players rather than a true knocker on the door for the senior side. Lavia is yet to even play due to injury.

This all paints a hard picture for Santos to get into, especially mid-season. Previously it may have been possible to imagine Gallagher leaving but such is his role in the side and performance level that seems near enough off the cards. Lavia will add a new dimension to the team when he returns and cost over £50million so will take a level of priority himself having been signed for first team duties immediately.

It is, then, not so much a case of what will happen to the current crop in January if Santos returns but what will happen to Santos instead. If there is hope for the youngster it is that Pochettino has already worked with him and is a fan of his, trusting him in some key roles during pre-season, and also that a similar scenario was bubbling under for Levi Colwill last year.

The academy graduate was handed a first taste of Premier League action having been one of the Championship's best performers with Huddersfield in 2021/22 but hardly played at Brighton before Christmas. It wasn't until the World Cup break that he truly established himself, returning in December to become a mainstay under Roberto De Zerbi.

The difference here is that Colwill already had experience in England and was effectively already an option at first on the south coast whereas Santos is a long way down in the pecking order. Colwill also arrived and saw the manager that signed him move on after less than a month whereas Cooper is engrained at Forest.

Either way it seems that he will be looking for a new club in January because those at Chelsea aren't putting much of a foot wrong to give him that much hope of forcing a way in.